WWE's Finn Balor Reveals Injury That Almost Kept Him From WrestleMania 39

By Matthew Aguilar

The past month or so has taken a physical toll on WWE Superstar Finn Balor, but we're not just referring to his match against Edge at WrestleMania 39. Balor took on Edge in a Hell in a Cell match, and during the match, Balor ended up having to get numbed up a bit before getting several staples to close a wound on his head that resulted from a thrown ladder. Balor was actually dealing with an injury before that though, as he revealed on social media he had suffered a grade 2 calf tear during the March 10th episode of SmackDown, an injury that has a recovery time of 6 to 8 weeks. There were only 3 weeks before WrestleMania though, and Balor and the WWE medical team threw everything they had at the injury to make sure Balor could compete.

In his post, Balor revealed there were long days of rehab to get ready for the match, as well as what his wife said to encourage his rehab process. It all makes Balor's work in the match more impressive, especially after having to get stapled during the match. You can find Balor's Instagram below.

Road to wrestlemania
On March 10th Ep of Smackdown I sustained a grade 2 calf tear.
Normal recovery time is estimated at 6-8 weeks.
Hold my beer!
With just 3 weeks & 2 days to Wrestlemania WWE medical team 'threw the kitchen sink at it' & with some careful planning, long days of rehab and a lot of swear words we made it back in time with a day or two spare!

My wife said it best. 'This injury has been the Demon of your career, and you need to over come this Demon to Release YOUR DEMON at Wrestlemania' @verolaguera
Special thanks to CJ for his incredible work ( and not taking a day off for 3 weeks)
Extra mention to @docholmes & @athleanx for all their support.

In the after-event press conference, Triple H addressed Balor's status and what happened in the ring during Balor's match with Edge. "He's great. I just spoke to him right before I came down here. Sometimes metal appliances that aren't designed to be thrown at you are unforgiving. [We] try to be safe as possible but things happen and he received a few staples in the ring. Bleeding stopped, went along with the match, and was able to put on a classic," Paul Levesque said

"I just saw him again. It was totally fine. Just is a good gash. When your blood is flowing and adrenaline's cooking, stuff tends to tends to flow a lot, but took care of it. We're all about the safety of performers and everything. We have at standing by at all times medical and ready to roll. The truth is if there's a risk, then we won't take it. We'll shut it down," Levesque said.

Balor seems to be having a ball as part of Judgement Day, and though he lost to Edge, Judgement Day's run doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon. In an interview with Daniel Cormier of ESPN (via EWrestlingNews), Balor said that being a part of Judgement Day has reignited his passion for the business.

"It's reignited my passion for the business (being in Judgment Day). I don't wanna say I was getting repetitive or stale but, I was getting very comfortable in the routine the I was in and I could go out there with my eyes closed and kind of perform and I felt fine, I felt comfortable and I don't think that's a good place to be. You wanna kind of push yourself and you wanna be excited to go out there and try something new and you know, I'd really wanted to dive into this heel character for a very long time and when I returned to NXT a couple years ago, that was the idea was, you know, to kind of to turn heel and start the character there and bring it back to Raw and SmackDown but in the timeframe of returning to NXT and turning heel, COVID happened and it took the live audience out of the equation so when you don't have the live audience to play off, you can't really be a genuine heel, especially someone who was notoriously a babyface his whole career," Balor said.

"So it was very difficult for me to portray a heel with no audience to interact with so that's where we got the 'Prince' tweener character where he was kind of a cool bad guy, kind of a cool good guy but somewhere in the middle. So I felt kind of robbed of that opportunity to play that heel character that I'd want to do and then, the time came that-that second run in NXT had came to an end, I came back to Raw and SmackDown, straight back to being babyface Finn and it was something that I was very comfortable doing but, I don't like being comfortable, especially 22 years in," Balor said. "I want something new, I want something different, I wanna change and the opportunity came to turn heel and join Edge in The Judgment Day and that kind of all got flipped on its head in one night and we kicked Edge out... That was the day of because I was under the impression – the week before, I had kind of gotten a hint, 'Hey, you're going with The Judgment Day. You're gonna be with Edge, Damian and Rhea' and when I showed up on the day, they said, 'Oh no, change of plan. Edge is out, you're in.'"

What do you want to see next for Balor in WWE? Let us know in the comments or as always you can talk all things wrestling like me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!

H/T Fightful

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